The lives of brothers Charlie and Owen Bender are changed forever on the night their father walks into the Vermont woods with a death wish and a shotgun. The second shock comes when his suicide note bequeaths the family's restaurant to Charlie alone, while leaving Owen with instructions to follow his own path, wherever it may take him. Years later, the restaurant is a success. The void in Charlie's life, created by his beloved brother's absence, is finally filled when a passionate affair becomes a deeply satisfying marriage. And now prodigal son Owen is returning home, to be welcomed back into the family fold. But the cruel legacy that tore a brotherhood apart created wounds not easily healed . . . and there must be reckoning. “Well-crafted... Greene is a reasonably engaging storyteller... intimate, minimalist scenes capture the flavor of smalltown life. - Publishers Weekly, Praise for Mirror Lake “A story of love, betrayal, and violence that kept me turning the pages to the end.” - Susan Cheever, Praise for Mirror Lake “Thomas Christopher Greene is a major new voice in American fiction.” - Nelson DeMille, Praise for Mirror Lake “Written gracefully and with great sensitivity. . . . In the tradition of such modern-day classics as Kent Haruf’s Eventide and Mark Spragg’s An Unfinished Life, I’ll Never Be Long Gone is the story of a unique and little-known part of America and the noble and embattled people who live there.” - Howard Frank Mosher, author of Disappearances and Waiting For Teddy Williams “[Greene] captures human flaws with tremendous sympathy and made me feel for each of his character’s pain and passion.... This is a magnificent, romantic tale.” - Nancy Geary, author of BEING MRS. ALCOTT “Greene makes us see these things so clearly that they seem like sensual daydreams right there on the page.” - Arizona Republic “Greene makes us see these things so clearly that they seem like sensual daydreams right there on the page.” - Arizona Republic ‘I’ll Never Be Long Gone is a richly etched, haunting tale of the legacies of generations, of two brothers very different search for the meanings of lives they seemed projected into more than they control, a broad meditation upon love and the sacrifice love demands and ultimately, for each, the challenge to confront themselves upon their own terms. In prose deeply evocative of landscape and place, there’s deft rendition of the notion that while a place may inhabit us, we rarely comprehend the cost and loss of such habitation. Highly recommended.’ - Jeffrey Lent, author of LOST NATION and IN THE FALL “I’LL NEVER BE LONG GONE tells the poignant tale of two brothers in love with the same woman. Set in the fictitious town of Eden, Vermont, Mr. Greene paints a vivid canvas of the harsh and beautiful landscape. He captures human flaws with tremendous sympathy and made me feel for each of his character’s pain and passion; and his depiction of the lively work of restaurant owners left me hungry for more of life at Charlotte’s. This novel is a magnificent, romantic tale.” - Nancy Geary, author of MISFORTUNE, REGRETS ONLY, and BEING MRS. ALCOTT “Thomas Christopher Greene’s I’ll Never Be Long Gone is a novel of family, love, betrayal and redemption in a small town in Vermont, written gracefully and with great sensitivity to the seasons, weather, woods, streams, lakes and, most of all, the independent-minded people who make their lives in this harsh and beautiful country. In the tradition of such modern-day classics as Kent Haruf’s Eventide and Mark Spragg’s An Unfinished Life, I’ll Never Be Long Gone is the story of a unique and little-known part of America and the noble and embattled people who live there.” - Howard Frank Mosher, author of Disappearances and Waiting For Teddy Williams “Written gracefully and with great sensitivity... in the tradition of Kent Haruf’s Eventide and Mark Spragg’s An Unfinished Life.” - Howard Frank Mosher, author of Disappearances and Waiting For Teddy Williams “A bright new voice in American Literature.” - Brett Lott, Praise for Mirror Lake “Greene’s novel unfolds... with words filled with beauty and strength.” - Tampa Tribune, Praise for Mirror Lake The lives of brothers Charlie and Owen Bender are changed forever on the night their father walks into the Vermont woods with a death wish and a shotgun. The second shock comes when his suicide note bequeaths the family's restaurant to Charlie alone, while leaving Owen with instructions to follow his own path, wherever it may take him. Years later, the restaurant is a success. The void in Charlie's life, created by his beloved brother's absence, is finally filled when a passionate affair becomes a deeply satisfying marriage. And now prodigal son Owen is returning home, to be welcomed back into the family fold. But the cruel legacy that tore a brotherhood apart created wounds not easily healed . . . and there must be reckoning. Thomas Christopher Greene was born and raise